08-05-2025
Her Ensemble review — Jess Gillam leads the charge in a crowded programme
Too many ideas, none of them fully followed through — that's why this concert by Her Ensemble at Milton Court in London didn't hang together as a whole. At first, it seemed dance was going to unite the four stylistically diverse pieces. The subtitle, after all, was 'The Three Dancers', after the painting by Picasso, which in turn inspired Elena Kats-Chernin to compose a dance score. And there was one real-life dancer on stage, Julian Nichols. Confusingly, however, he was dancing not to Kats-Chernin but to an atmospheric trio, Insight, by Dobrinka Tabakova. Worthwhile as that was, I'd love to have seen him return elsewhere.
Perhaps another of the programme's stated themes, visual art, might provide the glue. But again, the idea petered out
